1. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013 Spatial Distribution of Delinquent Behaviour in a Yoruba Traditional City: The experience from Ile-Ife, Nigeria AFON A. O and BADIORA A. I Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria *e-mail: wumi_zion@yahoo.comAbstractObtaining information from 334 households systematically in four identifiable residential zones, this studyinvestigated the spatial distribution of delinquent behaviour in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Rate of occurrence of delinquency inthe identified residential areas was measured through an index of 5 and tagged Delinquency Rate of OccurrenceIndex (DROI) showed that truancy (DROI=4.10) was the most prevalent delinquent behaviour in the traditional towncentre while stealing was established as the major delinquent behaviour in the middle income (DROI=3.04), highincome (DROI=4.42) and post crisis (DROI=3.91) residential areas. Findings further revealed that the local areaconditions (locality) predicted 69.3% of adolescent conduct disorder in the study area while the remaining 30.7%were predicted by other factors. Regression Linear equation defined for independent variable x (delinquencybehaviour) and dependent variable y (locality) was y=2.463+0.547x. The study concluded therefore that significantvariation existed in the rate of occurrence indices of delinquent behaviour (DROI) as local area conditions largelydetermined the level of conduct disorder among the adolescents in different residential zones of Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Theapproach to reduce delinquent behaviour so as to curb future criminal activities and make residents feel more securedshould be guided by those variations in occurrences and local area conditions.Keywords: Delinquency, Spatial, Variation, Distribution, Juvenile, Crime, Disorder.Introduction Involvement of adolescents in delinquent activities is on the increase in Nigeria. The last two decadeswitnessed crimes ranging from minor stealing to major robbery and killing perpetuated by teens. There has beenincreasing concern of the Police and the general public on the seriousness of adolescent crime and conduct problems(Wu, Chia, Lee and Lee 1998; Alemika and Chukwuma 2001; Eke 2004; Okorodudu 2010). The menace of destituteon streets across the cities in Nigeria is already a social problem to the government and the general public(Okorodudu, 2010) as delinquent activities are assuming dangerous tendencies as they threaten life, property, thenational sense of well-being, peace, security, social order and are eventually, reducing the citizens quality of life(Agbola, 2004). The issue of juvenile delinquency is an age long problem in Nigerian towns and cities. Theantisocial behaviours often associated with the juvenile delinquents include vandalism, drug abuse, weaponcarrying, alcohol abuse, rape, examination malpractices, school violence, and bullying, cultism, truancy and schooldrop-outs and so on (Sanni, Nsisong, Abayomi , Modo and Leonard 2010). Over time, as delinquency and related crime have become more epidemic and its effect more pervasive,social and environmental scientists have become interested and involved in the nature, causes and consequence ofdelinquency and crime. Urban planners and geographers have become active researchers in the field of urban crimeand delinquency, particularly when it relates to and effects on urban economics and infrastructure. Although,criminologist, penologists and political scientists as well as few sociologists have posited that delinquency and crimeare common phenomenon of communities with social and economic hardship no matter the region of the World (VanDijk, 1994). However, spatial and town planners, environmentalists and urban sociologists posited that crime anddelinquency must be viewed in the context of the place where it occurs because such places present bigger or lesseropportunities for criminal behaviour (Brantingham and Brantingham, 1995, Agnew, 1999, Anselin, Cohen, Cook,Gorr, and Tita, 2000, and Albanese, 2002). Juvenile delinquency tends to find explanations in the interactionbetween biological, environmental, economic and social factors (Eke 2004). The spatial aspect of the study of crime and delinquency therefore holds that in any community or region ofthe World even with thesame form of social and economic hardship, delinquent behaviour and crime occur moreoften in some areas than the other depending on the level of opportunity. This therefore suggests that environmentalvariables interact with other variables in the creation of high delinquent and crime areas. Thus, environmentalfeatures of residential areas are important for explaining where delinquency and crimes occur. It is on this notetherefore that this study evaluated the relationship between aspects of place and delinquency in Ile-Ife. 229

2. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013Theoretical and Conceptual Framework The anomie theory addresses the issue of why some social spaces are conducive for crime. Merton (1978) inDurkheim (1966) gives biological explanations of deviance and concludes that biology cannot account for variationsfrom one society to the next in the nature and extent of deviance or criminal activities. His primary interest is not somuch why a particular individual deviates, but why the rates of deviance differ so dramatically in different societiesand for different subgroups or areas within a single society. It is in this view that Eke (2004) argued that delinquencyand crime tends to find explanations in the interaction between biological, environmental, economic and socialfactors. With the inclusion of the interaction between biological, environmental, economic and social factors, thescope of delinquent behavior now varies over time and across communities, societies, states and nations.Delinquency and crime are morally, politically, economically and socially constructed symbols and conditions andthe definition of delinquency and concern about it usually reflect the confusion over such terms like a child, ateenager, an adolescent, a juvenile and a youth (Alemika and Chukwuma 2001). The laws of different nations andstates stipulate different age brackets for the juveniles and this makes the definition to assume different meaningacross nations of the world. For instance, in Nigeria, the maximum age today for juvenile delinquents according tothe Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 is 16 years for boys and 18 years for girls. Besides, the concept of a juvenile issometimes used interchangeably with other concepts like a child, an adolescent and a youth. But the law of a givennation is usually more specific in its definition of a child or juvenile or youth. Delinquency has been variously portrayed and defined as a condition of drift, maladjustment, pathology,disturbance, moral depravity and unruly behavior (Alemika et al 2001). Alemika further contributed that thedefinition of juvenile delinquency as well as concern about its manifestation, and control are influenced by aconfiguration of historical, political, social and economic conditions. Therefore, Juvenile delinquency is broadlydefined to any act in violation of criminal law, committed by a person defined under law as a juvenile, which if hadbeen committed by an adult will be treated as crime or criminal conduct (Alemika 1978; Muncie 1999). Alemika etal (2001) defines Juvenile as the violation of the criminal codes regulating the behavior of young persons in thesociety. Juvenile crime is usually termed delinquency (Jayamala 2008). In addition, Onyehalu (2003) argues that anydeparture from the accepted norms by people who are not yet adult is delinquency. However, Bingham; Shope, andRaghunathan (2006) refer to such behaviours which are socially proscribed or prohibited as problem behaviours.Any behavior that falls short of societal norms, values, beliefs and expectations are undesirable behaviours(Okorodudu and Okorodudu 2003). Juvenile delinquency is noted by Ekojo and Adole (2008) as gang delinquency.Okorodudu (2010) further defines gangs delinquent as a group of adolescents and youths that exhibit criminalbehaviour. Eke (2004) notes that there are two main categories of delinquent behaviours that frequently feature acrosstowns and cities in Nigeria. These are Criminal and Status offences. The criminal offences include stealing, arson,rape, drug offences and murder, burglary, pick pocket, and armed robbery. However, she listed status offences toinclude; running away from home, malingering and truancy. On the global scale, Armando Morales (1989) hasclassified youth gangs or delinquency into four types: Criminal, Conflict, Retreatist, and Cult/Occult gangs. Criminalgangs have a primary goal, that is, material gain through criminal activities such as theft of property from people orpremises, extortion, fencing, and drug trafficking. Conflict Gangs engage in violent conflict with individuals of rivalgroups that invade their neighbourhood or commit acts that they consider degrading or insulting. Retreatist gangsfocus on getting high or leaded alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, heroin or other drugs. Individuals tend to join thistype of gang to secure continued access to drugs. Cult/Occult Gangs engage in devil or evil worship cult which refersto systematic worshipping of evil or the devil; occult implies keeping something secret or hidden or a belief insupernatural or mysterious powers. It has been observed that a delinquent gang is created because the needs of youths are not being met by thefamily, neighbourhood or traditional community institutions (such as the schools, police, recreational and religiousinstitutions) and government (Eke, 2004, Jayamala, 2008; Okorodudu, 2010). Factors, in the home environments,like poverty, ill-treatment, alcoholic parents, broken family life, may drive the juvenile to the streets to commitdelinquencies. Family attitudes, like overprotection, rejection, lack of love, lack of response from parents, lack ofsuitable ideal and lack of discipline may also drive a child to criminal activities (Jayamala, 2008). 230

3. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013The study Area: An overview Ile-Ife is predominantly a Yoruba speaking city. The city is situated in the south western part of Nigeria(See Figure 1). It lies between Latitude 70150N, 70310N and Longitude 40430E, 40450E. Ile-Ife is built around apermanent traditional community with the phenomenon of urban ghetto apparent in the inner city. Consequently, thesocial divisions are exacerbated by the spatial distribution of separate social groups. Ile-Ife still remains thetraditional characteristics of homogeneity, communal land tenure, close kinship and family ties as well as primarygroup relationship. Furthermore, there has been an incremental growth in the population of Ile-Ife. A town of 92862people in 1963 (Population Censure Figure) and 178 409 in 1991 (Population Censure Figure) grew to over 480,000people in 2006 (Population Censure Figure). With the population growth, physical and political expansion,development possibilities as well as urban problems of various form and in varied complexities started. One of theseurban problems is delinquent behaviour. Ile-Ife like other traditional urban centres in Yoruba land is known to have been in existence before theadvent of colonialism. The town was built with security wall surrounding it in the early part of the origin. However,developmental activities in Ile-Ife brought about growth outside the city wall and the growth outside the town wallthen produced two cities in one: the traditional and the modern city. Onibokun (1985) submitted that the combinationof these two parts in such Nigerian city revealed three contrasting residential zones linked to three historical periods.These are the pre-colonial development, the zone between pre-colonial and post independent residential developmentand the post independent development. The pre-colonial development in any African city with long historical origin is the traditional town centre ofthe city. It could also be referred to as the core while the second is the intermediate or transition zone and the third issub-urban (Afon 2005). Each of these zones is observed to be internally homogenous in terms of physical layout,socio-economic status and environmental amenities available among others and respectively associated with low,medium and high quality residential areas (Afon 2005). Traditional Yoruba cities in Nigeria where these zones areidentifiable include: Ilorin (Akorede 1974); Ibadan (Onokerhoraye 1977); and Ogbomosho (Afon 2005). Similarly,this particular pattern was also observed in Ile-Ife. They were respectively referred to in this study as the traditionaltown centre, areas with layout development (middle income residential area) and high income area. Anotherphysical setting observed in Ile-Ife for the purpose of this study was the post crisis residential area. The traditional town centre is mainly occupied by first migrants or the indigenes of Ile-Ife (See Figure 3). Inthe centre of the town is the palace (Afin) of the Ooni who is the traditional head of the town. Surrounding the palaceare the important shrines and the main traditional market. This area consists of small streets and row houses shapingenclosed blocks. Mostly everyone knows each other in these neighbourhoods. The houses in this zone are closelybuilt together and connected to one another with foot paths. This made majority of the building to lack accessibilityto road. Houses in this zone are mainly of traditional system. House type commonly feature in this area aretraditional courtyard system and face-me-I-face-you which were made from indigenous materials. Residents engagein primary and traditional occupation such as farming and petty trading activities. Traditional town centre of Ile-Ifedeveloped organically and therefore, most of the areas in this place did not enjoy modern physical panningregulations. The physical environment is low in standard as depicted in housing construction techniques andmaterials as well as layout and the facilities available. With the growth of population and development, expansions become inevitable and there was pressure ofthe need to accommodate growing middle income age. People therefore, began to move out of the traditional towncentre to new areas within the town. The most important physical feature is that this new areas were developedthrough a layout plan and modern day planning regulations. The local streets inside the area have a distributedstructure with few possibilities for through traffic. This area is regarded in this study as middle income residentialarea (See Figure 3). Thus expansion of middle income residential area was noticed in Ile-Ife along Ibadan, Ede andIlesha roads. Middle income residential area features house types such as flat, bungalow and few face-me-I-face-you andduplexes made from foreign and modern materials. Walls are made with cement block and housing density is lessthan that of the traditional town centre. Ethnic composition of this area is varies as this area is being occupiedmajorly by indigenes and non-indigene employed in the formal sector of the town. There is also more accessibility togovernment and social amenities in this area. High income residential area developed through a well layout plan (See Figure 3). The ethnic compositionis heterogeneous and so also are the building types. Majority of residents in this area engaged in white collar jobssuch as professionals, business men and top civil service and government functionaries. The supply of urban 231

4. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013environmental services is favourably bias towards this area. It has high quality of landscape architecture, streetslayout with planned distributed structure and possibilities for through traffic. In the area, various facilities can befound. It features house types such as flat and duplexes. In general, it is a quiet housing area, where its spatial layoutsupports the inhabitants lifestyles. The area consists of row houses, some with a small front garden and most of thehomes have small private open space. Post crisis residential area was originally partly traditional town centre and middle income residential area(See Figure 3). This is because some part of this area developed as transition zone through a layout plan while otherorganically developed and mainly occupied by the indigenes of Ile-Ife. However, its present social and physicalconditions emerged as a result of the last Ife-Modakeke crisis. During the period of caring out this study, the areasreputation was generally low. This area consists of freestanding row houses and dilapidated buildings, many vacantspace, unoccupied buildings with some dump sites, low trees and bushes between the buildings. The local streetsinside the area have a distributed structure but frequently disserted particularly in the night. The social compositionsof the dwellers consist of mostly immigrants, unemployed and low-income families and the areas spatial layout tendto be spatial segregated with few possibilities for social control and natural surveillance.Methodology: data collection and analysis Data for this study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtainedthrough the stratification of the study area into the traditional town centre, middle income, high income and postcrisis residential areas. A total of 343 streets were identified from the identified residential areas comprising 83, 147,41 and 72 respectively. One out of every five street (20%) in each residential stratum was randomly selected withoutreplacement. From the selected streets, a total of 3097 buildings were identified comprising 873, 1386, 294 and 544respectively in the four areas. Every tenth building (10%) was selected using systematic sampling. Questionnaire wasadministered on household head on each floor of the selected buildings. A total of 357 questionnaires wereadministered and 334 were retrieved and analyzed. Data collected included residents rating of types and frequency ofoccurrence of delinquency in the study area. To determine this, residents were provided with a list of delinquentbehaviours identified in the literature. They were further instructed to indicate the rate of occurrence of each of theidentified delinquent behaviour type. Residents were to express their opinion using one of five Likert scales of veryfrequent (VF), frequent (F), just frequent (JF), not frequent (NF) and not at all frequent (NAF). The analyses of the ratings indicated by the residents from the Likerts scales adopted evolved into an indexcalled Delinquent Rate of Occurrence Index (DROI). To arrive at DROI, weight value of 5,4,3,2 and 1 wererespectively attached to very frequent (VF), frequent (F), just frequent (JF), not frequent (NF) and not at allfrequent (NAF). The index for each type of crime was arrived by dividing the Summation of Weight Value (SWV)by the total number of responses. The SWV for each type was obtained through the addition of the product of the number of responses to eachtype and the respective weight value attached to each rating. 5This is mathematically express as SWV = i=1 xiyi (1)Where:SWV= Summation of Weight value;xi= number of respondents to rating i;yi=the weight assigned to a value (i=1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The index for each identified crime type thus takes a value of between 5 and 1. The nearer the value to 5,the higher is the occurrence that residents attached to such crime type under consideration. CROI= SWV (2) xi 232

5. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013 The mean index for each of the residential area and that of Ile-Ife were computed. This was obtained bysumming the indices of all delinquent behaviour types and dividing by the number of the identified crime types(n=14). The mean index of traditional town centre, middle income residential areas, high income residential areasand post crisis residential areas were denoted respectively by DROIa, DROIb, and DROIc, DROId while that of Ile-Ifewas denoted by DROIe.Research Findings The research findings are discoursed under the various headings below. Unless otherwise stated, the tablesthrough which information are summarized are the products of the survey carried out by the authors in 2011. a. Types and rate of occurrence of delinquent activities in Ile- Ife Presented in Table 1 was the summary of the perceived delinquency rate of occurrence indices in thetraditional town centre, middle income, and high income and post crisis residential areas of the study area. Theaverage delinquency rate of occurrence index (DROIa) was 3.04. It was evident therefore that juvenile delinquencyperceived to have higher magnitude of treat in the traditional town centre of Ile-Ife included stealing, truancy,teenage pregnancy, malingering, running away from home gambling and street fight. All these delinquencybehaviour had their indices above the average rate of occurrence index obtainable in the traditional town centre ofthe town. Residents further perceived that the five most occurring juvenile delinquencies included truancy, teenagepregnancy, malingering, stealing and running away from home. Delinquent behaviour such as sexual harassment,rape, partying/noise, drug offences, pick pocket, armed robbery and arson had their rate of occurrence index belowthe DROIa. Hence, these delinquency behaviours might not constitute major challenge in the traditional town centreof the study area. While truancy was perceived as the major conduct disorder among the adolescent in the traditionaltown centre, residents were of the opinion that arson was the least occurring conduct disorder among the adolescentin the traditional town centre. The mean rate of occurrence index (DROIb) was put at 2.35. Using the mean rate of occurrences as thereference point therefore, delinquency behaviour can be grouped into two in middle income residential area. Thesewere group with index above DROIb and group with index below DROIb. Group above the mean index (DROIb) hadpositive deviation while group below the mean had negative deviation. Positive deviation indicates that residentsmight likely be facing the threat of these conduct disorder. Therefore, residents were of the opinion that offencessuch as stealing, malingering, pick pocketing, and sexual harassment, armed robbery, teenage unwanted pregnancy,drug offences and arson constitute major challenge in these areas. All these had positive deviation. Stealing wasperceived as the major criminal behaviour among the adolescent in this part of the town while truancy was perceivedto be the least occurring offences. The indices of these juvenile delinquencies were 3.04 and 1.06 respectively. Delinquency rate of occurrence indices relative to residents perception in the high income residential areasof the town was presented in the Table 2. From this summary, an average delinquency rate of occurrence index(DROI c) of 2.93 was obtained. Similarly, base on residents perception, delinquency can be grouped into two. Thesewere group with positive deviation from the mean and group with negative deviation from the mean. Positivedeviation was an indication that the occurrence index of these delinquency behaviours were above the average indexof the area. It also indicated that residents in this part of the town were of the opinion that the challenges of theseoffences were higher when comparing with others. Therefore, those offences perceived to have higher magnitude oftreat in high income residential area included stealing, malingering, illegal gambling, unwanted pregnancy, rape,sexual harassment street fight, partying/noise and truancy. Offences such as running away from home, drug offences pick pocketing, armed robbery and arson hadtheir rate of occurrence indices below the mean occurrence index of the area and therefore, might not constitutemajor challenges in high income residential area. Residents were of the opinion that the five frequently occurringjuvenile delinquency included stealing, malingering, illegal gambling, teenage pregnancy and rape. The rate ofoccurrence index of 4.42 was computed for stealing while malingering had 3.63. While the occurrence index forillegal gambling was 3.35, teenage pregnancy and rape had rate of occurrence indices of 3.25 and 3.15 respectively.Residents perceived stealing as the major delinquency behaviour in this part of the town while residents were of theopinion that arson was the least occurring criminal behaviour among the teenagers. The occurrence index of arson inthe high income residential area was1.63. 233

6. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online)Vol.3, No.1, 2013 With the DROI=3.91, stealing was perceived to be the most challenging criminal behaviours among theadolescent in the post crisis residential area. Closely next to this was illegal gambling with DROI=3.33 while sexualharassment, partying/noise and pick pocketing were also perceived by the residents as part of the prevalentdelinquency behaviour in this areas. The mean rate of occurrence index (DROI d) of delinquency behaviour amongthe teenagers in this part of the town was 3.01. Thus, stealing, gambling, sexual harassment, partying/noise, pickpocket, street fight and rape had their DROI above DROI d. This gave an indication that all these above mentioncriminal and status offences might constitute a major challenge in the post crisis residential areas of the town. Offences such as truancy, drug offences, running away from home, teenage pregnancy, armed robbery;malingering and arson had their index below the mean computed for the area. However, as obtainable in thetraditional town centre, arson was also the least occurring offences among the adolescent in the post crisis area with amean deviation of -0.56. The average delinquency rate of occurrence (DROIe) for the study area was 2.68. From thissummary, two groups of delinquency behaviour were noted in Ile-Ife. These were group that had positive deviationand those with negative deviation. Positive deviation is an indication that residents in Ile-Ife might be facing thechallenges of such delinquency behaviour when compare with others. Thus, characteristics and types of delinquentbehaviour perceived to have higher magnitude of treat in the town included stealing, rape, teenage pregnancy, streetfight, malingering, truancy, parting, running away from home and sexual harassment. The five most occurring juvenile delinquency relative to residents perception in the town were stealing,teenage pregnancy, truancy, sexual harassment and street fight. The occurrence indices of these delinquencybehaviours were 3.63, 3.40, 3.10, 3.06 and 2.99 respectively. In addition teenage pregnancy was perceived to havethe highest rate of occurrence index in the case status offences while residents were of the opinion that stealing wasthe most frequently occurring offence among the adolescent in the case of criminal offences. Arson was perceived tobe the least occurring delinquency behaviour in the town. The index of this crime type was 1.46. Traditional towncentre had the highest average rate of delinquency behaviour in the town while middle income residential areas hadthe least average rate of delinquency occurrence index when compare with other residential areas of the town. To this end, while stealing was the major delinquency behaviour among the adolescent in the post crisisresidential areas of the town, the middle income residential area and high income residential area, truancy was themajor challenge in the traditional town centre of the town. Illegal gambling was mostly featured in the post crisis andhigh income residential areas of the town but was more pronounced in, the post crisis residential area of the town.Post crisis residential areas faced more the challenges of drug offences among the adolescent when compare withother three residential areas of the town. While juvenile delinquencies were common phenomenon in all the residential areas of the town, significantvariation exists in the rate of occurrence of all the identified delinquent behaviours in the town. The result of the Chi-Square test confirmed this. For instance, significant variation exist in the rates of occurrence of stealing, truancy andteenage pregnancy in the identified residential zones at x2=107.467, 23.725 and 70.132 respectively whilemalingering (x2= 19.144) and partying/noise (x2=16.629) were significant at p=0.001 and 0.003 respectively. Allthese give an indication that the magnitude at which these delinquent behaviour occur differ from one residential areato another in the study area. This was further confirmed in correlations analysis of locality and delinquencybehaviour as a direct relationship was determined. The test of association between locality and delinquent behaviour showed that the correlation coefficient (r)was 0.608 significant at p